Safety headgear



April 17, 1956 A. J. RUGGIERO 2,741,768

SAFETY HEADGEAR Filed June 14, 1952 Mar /N VE N 70H AL FRED J RUGG/ER O afw his A 7' TOPNE Y United States Patent SAFETY l-IEADGEAR Alfred J. Ruggiero, San Francisco, Calif., assignor to E. D. Bullard Company, San Francisco, Calif., a corporation of California Application June 14, 1952, Serial No. 293,517

3 Claims. (Cl. 2-3) My invention relates to safety headgear; and particularly to a crown structure and the suspension harness which supports the headgear on the head of the wearer.

The broad object of my invention is the provision of an integrally formed crown and a detachable suspension harness for safety headgear such as molded plastic, rigid crown, hats and caps.

Another object of my invention is the provision of a rigid crown safety hat and suspension harness which may be readily mounted directly upon integral portions of the crown without intervening parts attached to or hurried in the crown.

Another object is the provision of a safety headgear in which the supporting parts of the suspension harness lie wholly within the crown of the headgear and none is exposed on the outside surface of the crown.

My invention possesses other objects, some of which will be brought out in the following description of the invention. I do not limit myself to the showing made by the said description and the drawings, since I may adopt variant forms of the invention within the scope of the appended claims.

Broadly the crown structure and suspension harness of my invention comprises a stiff but resilient strip extending around the inside of the crown of the headgear and interlocking directly with low pads or bosses integral with the body of the crown. The body wall of the crown is without impairment due to embedded or perforating metal parts, the integral bosses extending inwardly from the inner surface of the crown. Head straps are secured to the strip and are arranged to pass over the top of the head of the wearer of the headgear so as to support the strip and connected headgear in position of use. A sweat band is connected to the head straps to comfortably encircle the head and prevent objectionable lateral movement of the headgear. Means are provided to connect the 'ends of the strip so that it may be expxanded to interlock securely within the bosses or contracted to release therefrom.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a bottom view in reduced scale of a safety hat embodying my suspension.

Fig. 2 is a vertical view of a portion of the hat, taken in the plane indicated by the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view of a fragment taken in the plane indicated by the line 33 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary plan view partly in section taken in plane indicated by the line 4-4 of Fig. 2, the head straps and sweat band being omitted.

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 4, but showing the resilient strip formed in a smooth curve without offset anchor portions.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary elevational view taken in the direction indicated by the arrow 6 in Fig. 1, the head straps being omitted. Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are drawn to a scale approximately full size.

In terms of greater detail, my safety headgear crown and suspension harness includes an adjustable sweatband conveniently formed of two pieces of leather folded and stitched to provide a head engaging portion 2, and a mounting portion 3, the head engaging portion being folded over and around the mounting portion to provide a smooth lower edge 4. The ends of the sweat band structure are interleaved, and secured in desired adjustment by a T-shaped metal fastener 5, passed through suitable slits in adjoining layers.

The mounting portion is provided with six circumferentially spaced slits 6, through each of which passes a loop 7 formed at each end of a heastrap 8, and secured by rivets 9. Three such headstraps are used, each folded at its center about the centrally placed tie cord 10. The six end loops of the headstraps intercept the sweatband in the slits at more or less evenly spaced intervals. The tie cord may be adjusted to vary the height of the hat crown 12 on the head.

To mount the sweatband and headstrap assembly within the hat crown, a resilient split ring 13 is provided. The ring is formed from a resilient strip, conveniently a piece of spring wire shaped a trifle smaller than the inside periphery of the crown at the zone whereit is to lie. Its ends are connected by a sleeve 14, threaded on one end of the wire and socketed over the other end, so that by turning the sleeve, the ring is expanded into tight engagement against the inside of the hat crown, or contracted to permit its disengagement and removal. A small hole 15 in the sleeve allows insertion of a pin so that the sleeve may readily be turned.

Before shaping the ring to fit the crown, the wire is provided at calculated intervals with slightly offset anchor portions 16. When the ring is mounted in the crown, the anchor portions project inwardly from the surface to provide narrow spaces 17, Figs. 4, through which the loops 7 pass. The portions 13 of the ring which are not offset, seat tightly against the inner surface of the crown and in grooves 15L Fig. 3, formed in bosses or pads 21 molded integrally with the crown wall, so that movement of the ring relative to the crown is prevented until the sleeve is turned to allow contraction of the ring and its disengagement from the bosses. The bosses extend inwardly from the inside surface of the crown; and the bottom of each groove is preferably continuous with the crown surface, so that the integrity of the wall is fully preserved. Because of conditions imposed by the preferred molding technique, the bosses are molded integrally with the crown and without the groove, which is then cut in the lower part by a thin grinding disk, leaving a long and relatively massive upper portion to carry major stresses encountered in use, and a short and relatively small lower portion to retain the ring and suspension harness in place.

As will be seen in Figs. 2 and 6, the anchor portions of the ring also project upwardly at the point of emergence of the ring from the groove. This lessens the torque applied to the portions 18 lying against the crown surface, and places the anchor portions closer to that surface. By spacing the ofiset bends 22 with reference to the bosses 21 as shown, any tendency toward rotary movement of the ring in the crown is effectively blocked.

To remove the suspension harness from the hat, the sleeve is turned further on to the threaded end of the ring, so that the ring spread is reduced suificiently to permit easy disengagment from the grooved bosses. It is to be noted that the connected ends of the ring are in linear alignment, lying as a chord across the short are of the adjacent crown.

It will be understood of course that the provision of each ofiset anchor portion 16 in the resilient strip 18, is designed to provide some slight play of the head strap loop which it secures, as well as provide a particular portion of the strip for holding the loop. Any offset in the strip provides a small leverage to apply torque to the adjacent portions of the ship when the hat is subjected to a blow. It

may be desirable to avoid the imposition of such stresses,

and at the same time impart directly from hat crown to a 'head strap, a portion offthe inipact load. This may be accomplished by forming thev resilient strip without offset portions, but in a smooth curve of substantially the, same curvature as the inside of the crown, so that when the sleeve 15 is turned to expand the strip, the strip binds the head strap loop very tightly against the crown suriace, perhaps deflecting slightly to actual contact with the crown in those portions between the loop-pinching sections. So

held the'loop cannot shift laterally, as shown in Pig. 5.

bosses, means adjustably connecting the ends of the strip to vary the size of the ring fo lI ed by the strip to adjust the degree of the interlocking engagement with the 7 bosses, and head straps secured to the strip to support the strip and interlocked crown upon the head of the wearer.

2. In a safety headgear having a rigid crown, a plurality of bosses spaced about the interior surface of the crown in the lower portion thereof, said bosses having aligned grooves therein, a stiff resilient wire extending around h nt ior of he h adgea and lying in sa d grooves,

means adjustably connecting the ends of the wireto vary thesize of the ring in' said grooves, and head straps secured to the wire in those portions between the bosses to support it and the connected crown upon the head of the wearer.

3. In a safety headgear having a rigid crown, a plurality I of bosses spaced about the interior surface of the crown in the lower Portion thereof, said bosses, having aligned grooves therein, a stiff resilientwire extending around the interior of the headgear and lying in said grooves and having inwardly and upwardly extending ofiset'portions between se'lected bosses, and head straps secured to the wire in said offset portions whereby tension on the head straps is resisted by torsion of those portions of thewire on each side of the offset portions.

Refer nces Cite in the tile of this patent STATES PATENTS 7 7 1,492,577 'Obermeyer e May .6, 1924 2,2 8,366 Lewis .V.. r V J ly 3, 71941 2,573,250 Daly Oct, 30, 195.1 2,585,937 Johnson et al Feb. 19, 1 952 Summers et a1. t Apr. 21, 1953 

